The Importance Of Training

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background

Employee training normally takes place after orientation once new employees join an organisation. The organisational changes have created a need for adaptable pre-trained workers and for employees to have more "protean" career paths and be involved in self-directed ongoing development (Hall & Mirvis, 1995). Training is always linked to employees’ future development. It is an education process to learn new information, sharpening existing knowledge and skills. The goal of training is to have impact to the participants to create specific action steps and commitments than eventually enhance skill and development.

Organisations need quality employees that are confidence, initiative, with problem solving capabilities and well verse with their current job technically or non-technical. These are among the qualities sought after by employers to develop their organisation.

Employees getting the pressure from rapid technology innovations which create competitiveness among employees and require them to consistently update their knowledge and skills. Furthermore these employees have to work on different areas which usually demand far more from area of specialization. Training will help to curb the situation faced by employees. Hence training now days is not seen as a light issue but a very crucial part of organisation strategy.

This study highlights the current challenges faced by employees in selecting the right training to upgrade their skill and to enhance career path. . Furthermore training options are limited hence it is important for the employees to utilize the opportunity by enrolling in the most suitable training available as each employee is restricted with limited training due to time and cost (Zhengbing Hu, Rabah Moh'd Al Shboul, 2009).

The recommendation features in the prototype will calculated based on Pearson Correlation Algorithm and recommend the suitable training to employees.

A recommendation system generally learns from other users and recommends the product to a user that find most valuable among other available product. The same concept applies to training recommendation in this study. First profile will be created for each employee and segregated by department and level. The rating from other employees will be used to recommend training for next employees based on the department using Pearson Correlation Algorithm. This study will help the employees to choose training easily when limited options are provided and with the help of recommendation from other employees. This study focus on Information Technology (IT) training Recommendation system that cover multiple teams in IT field but specifically on Server Ops, SAN and Storage, Programming and Network teams. The end result of this dissertation is to design and develop a training recommendation prototype that will utilize other employees rating who have attended the training, implement this prototype, and evaluate the outcome.

Research Context

The employees working on an organisation are considered as "human assets" and for these employees to cope with changes; the organisation has to pay attention to develop the ability, wisdom and skills of the workforce. An ultimate training program can be expected to change the attitude, skill and develop forward vision of the participants towards the task. (Chidambaram Vijayabanu, Ramachandran Amudha, 2012).

This research focuses on Information Technology (IT) employees and their training needs. Topics on training are very general and it depends on the professions, specifications and requirements. This study focus on IT training because the scope of the study is smaller and this will help to focus on the problem and understand how this study can help to improve the existing method used. Besides that detailed respond can be obtained and this will produce efficient result to this study

The research survey and questionnaires targeted employees from information technology field from various department and organisations. The targeted employees mainly selected from IT department because this group has some knowledge on this subject and would be able to provide more accurate respond base on their experiences.

Statement of problem

Organisations globally realized the importance of training. Training keep their employee motivated, engaged and driven to performance thus makes the business grow. Training do helps provide comfortable environment to new comer or fresher and helps to understand on their job profile and work productively. Furthermore, training and developing employees are important components in attracting talent, increasing productivity and improving employee satisfaction and retention (Thomas D.Cairns, 2012).

When training was given high importance, many companies started to offer training products and tools either online or class training at multiple location and as per trainees need. There were different kinds of training from technical to soft skills which can be attended easily. Generally employees, who would like to attend a specific training, will be overwhelmed with information such as training companies and with their long list of training. However employees do not utilize the training provided or not be able to choose the right training for their skill. This is very important because employees will become more efficient and productive when the right training is provided.

Furthermore fever employees were only provided with limited training option hence it is important to select the best training that would match the employees need. Even though organisation willing to send employees for training but they would consider based on how much they are willing to spend money. Cost is important factor here. The courses planning process needs to abide the company’s policies regarding training hours and costs (Zhengbing Hu, Rabah Moh'd Al Shboul, 2009). Hence each employee is limited to certain number of training. Employee has to choose the best training that would help their future and related to their career and interest.

Additionally, questionnaire has been conducted in some major information technology companies and it shows that some of employees were overwhelmed with courses and they take training lightly. There was less effort in training selection based on career or interest.

Research Objectives

The objective of this study is to design and development a content based recommendation system using Pearson Correlation Algorithm that would enable IT employee to choose the right training easily and effectively. This recommendation system contains the database of all training offered for the employees. While the management would be able to monitor the employee training selection and at the same time able to add or update the training module base on employee feedback.

The objectives of this study are:

To investigate the problems and challenges faced by employees to choose Information Technology training.

To propose a prototype that recommends IT training for employees

To develop the prototype of IT Training recommendation system for employees.

To evaluate the IT Training recommendation system implemented among employees in companies.

Research questions

The research questions for this study is aimed to understand further on the current training selection system or process, the challenges faced by employees and to get feedback and to identify the area of improvements.

What is level of employees’ training participation in the current organisation?

Method: Survey

Expected findings: Outcome on employees’ awareness on the importance of training and their level of participation provided by organisation. This will help to identify the current problem faced by employees.

What is the level of understanding of the current training selection process, challenges faced by employees, ways to overcome the challenges, how this can be improved and what would be the benefit if the training selection process is automated?

Method: Survey

Expected findings: Outcome on the employee level of training understanding and improvement needed.

What are the challenges faced by the management on the employee participation in training, current training selection method, ways to overcome the challenges and what would be the benefit when the training selection if the process is automated?

Method: Interview

Expected findings: Feedback on management point of view on employee training participation, training selection process, approval and improvement needed.

Are they any tools that are available to recommend training?

Method: Archival Research

Expected outcome: Features, functions and algorithm which can be used to monitor and track employee training.

Limitation/ Delimiters

Training is a wide topic. Hence this will study only focus on Information Technology (IT) employees and the prototype will be cover main teams. The teams are server team, storage, programmer and network. These are among top four teams in IT based or services based companies who normally cover IT related business.

Significance of study

The study on training recommendation system was carried out for the reasons below:

Employees will be able to view all training option for current and others teams based the level of difficulties.

Peer recommendation rating help employees choose the right training easily.

Employee will be able to choose the training and track the approval process.

Management would be able to communicate or provide the right training to employees for their career progress and to enhance the skill.

Employees would be able to view the overall system of training selection and approval process which is done easily and faster.

Employees will benefit more from the training while the organisation would be able to reach their objective of spending the money wisely on the right training for their employees.

This research is focusing on training for IT employee only. In most companies, training is offered for each employee and it is optional for the employees to choose the training. However some of these employees never utilize the training offered. The company in some countries like Malaysia will get the incentive from government in terms of tax redemption when employees attended training on selected providers or centers. This research will be useful for organisation in coordinating training and help the organisation to provide the right training for the employees. With the training recommendation system employee will identify and utilize company sponsored training wisely. In the other hand management will be able to improve their training strategy and cost effectively.

Research Design

Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used throughout this study. Quantitative method covers survey questions that require participant to provide background information and rating from number 1-5 based on their experience. Employee’s background especially working experience is important to determine the quality of survey. Hence section 1 of the questionnaire covers employee background to understand their work experience. As the focus of this study is about training, it is important to post questions on employees’ awareness and importance of training. Section 2 covers the employee’s awareness and the importance of training. Section 3 focuses on identify the challenges faced by employees and finally section 4 covers area of improvement. 100 participants were targeted to take part in the survey which will be sent via email. As for qualitative method, interview session will be conducted and targeted the management. Management representations are supervisors and managers will be interviewed to understand the current training selection method, process and suggestion for improvement.

Definition of terms

Information technology (IT) employee

Employee who work in information technology department who responsible for storing information, protecting information, processing the information, transmitting the information as necessary, and later retrieving information as necessary.

Server

A server is a high end computer which is design to inter-connect machines with each other. Technically means the specific computer is serving all those computers that are present in its network. It facilitates them by making queue of the printing command of several computers at a time and also acts like a file server for those applications that are accessed by the online terminals.

Storage

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components and recording media that retain digital data. Data storage is a core function and fundamental component of computers.

SAN

Storage Area network. A storage area network (SAN) is a high-speed special-purpose network (or sub network) that interconnects different kinds of data storage devices with associated data servers on behalf of a larger network of users.

Programming

Computer programming (often shortened to programming or coding) is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a set of instructions that computers use to perform specific operations or to exhibit desired behaviors.

Organisation of Dissertation

This research purpose to give an overview of major phase that included in this dissertation which is divided into 6 chapters.

Chapter 1 covers the introduction of the research which covers background of this study, the overall context of this research, problem statement, research objectives and questions. Furthermore significance of this study, limitation, and high level of research design and definition of terms are explained.

Chapter 2 discuss and review the literature review related to this study that covers topic on importance of training, type of recommendations systems, algorithm related to recommendations systems, challenges on using algorithm and review of existing training system implemented. The literature review is necessary to gather information other research and to understand theoretically, how the research was carried out and the gap that my research intends to fill. The finding also covers some of the training method and training selection method used and already researched by other students.

Furthermore, this chapter helps to identify what are the flaws or advantage of certain technique or method which can be fixed or used in the new system. Comparison on studies conducted on different method discussed in this chapter which helps to identify the right method to be used for this dissertation.

Chapter 3 discuss on how data gathered for this studies. This chapter does cover about research framework, investigation method; in this case survey and interview were used. Qualitative and quantitative method used in this study is to make sure the right group and questions are gathered and the same time to make sure questions are relevant to the objective of this study. Furthermore this chapter also covers data collection and some brief finding on data analysis that support this study.

Chapter 4 is elaborate about data analysis and findings. Details on data analysis collected from survey and interview are discussed and related to suggested system requirement. One of the important aspects of this chapter is to map the findings to the design of solution which is described in detailed.

Chapter 5 is about implementation of the proposed system which starts from system design to development and finally the system itself. This chapter relates very closely with chapter 2 mainly because proposed system environment has been discussed in chapter 2. The design and development phase were discussed in details with flow chart, data flow diagram and entity relationship diagram. Evaluation and testing also covered in this chapter and describe about enhancements done on proposed system.

Chapter 6 covers conclusion of overall presentation of this dissertation includes achievements, constrains and some future improvement on this dissertation. This chapter will include the conclusion about overall study.